Mental Clarity: 5 Quick Steps to Recover From Any Loathsome Upset

Something small happens that wasn’t quite what you hoped for, and then it gets your mind going. And no matter what you do, you can’t get your mind off it again.

Worst of all is, it’s not even something significant.

You know this.

A comment from a colleague. A look from your boss. An unexpected bill. Or an unwanted email.

Nothing major.

Yet, once your mind gets started, it gets chewing on this “issue” like a dog on a bone.

You were intending to approach this day with some mental clarity …

some focus,

presence, and

inner calm

… and now something small threw you.

You feel frustrated. Your intentions are good.

But the practice of those intentions isn’t as simple as you hoped it would be. Every day there’s something else.

You catch yourself thinking with sarcasm:

You can always try to be mature again tomorrow, champ!”

The sad truth is that you hate spoiling the rest of your day because of a small hiccup.

What you need is a quick routine with clear steps. One that will help you regain mental clarity following an upset.

Below we’ll consider 5 quick steps that you can take to get back to complete mental clarity. Use it the next time you’re tripped up by something unexpected.

Step 1: Burst Your Ego’s Bubble

The ego always wants something. Nothing is ever enough.

So, if you want to quiet it down, keep on confirming that You (Capital Y) want nothing.

Mentally repeat these statements:

“There’s nothing that I want.”

“There’s nothing that I need.”

“I don’t give a fuck.”

“I need nothing about this or any other situation to change. I’m content with things as they are.”

“There’s nothing that I desire.”

“I don’t mind what happens!”

If you keep repeating such thoughts for a minute or two, it will start quieting your racing mind.

Step 2: Stop Chasing Complete Mental Clarity

Anthony de Mello was one of the pioneers of modern contemplative spirituality. He taught that the goal of meditation is complete mental clarity — a proper absence of thought. Yet, he conceded that it’s a difficult goal to aim for.

Especially for those lacking experience.

He used the analogy of using one thorn to remove many other thorns from your foot.

The one thorn:

Focusing on your breath.

The many thorns:

All your habitual, automatic thoughts.

This is nothing new, but every bit as powerful as the first time you heard it:

Relax and focus on your breath.

Do not try and change your breath.

Observe your breath with a light focus.

Focus on the air as it enters your nostrils and again as it leaves.

If you want to deepen your focus, you can also see if you can find the still point between each inhale. And exhale. And inhale. And exhale.

It is like a little gap, or space, of nothingness.

Practice this focus for a minute or three, and you will have broken your stream of mind in a powerful way.

You will find that you don’t need complete mental clarity to experience intense relief. A focus on your breath works wonders.

Step 3: Feel Alive, Baby!

Now that you have some momentum, it is time to deepen your clarity. Do this by focusing on the subtle feeling of aliveness inside your body.

Imagine you can open the pores of your skin, and in a sense increase the space between your body’s atoms.

What does this feel like?

Can you feel the arising of a subtle yet vibrant energy field behind the physical body? It is on another level, one just behind the physical body (so to speak).

Keep your focus on this energy field.

If you can feel it only for certain parts of the body — Expand it. Grow it.

Once you can feel the whole energy field that transcends and includes your body, focus on this for a while.

Step 4: Access the Complete Bliss of Stillness

When you become aware of silence, immediately there is that state of inner still alertness. You are present. You have stepped out of thousands of years of collective human conditioning.” — Eckhart Tolle

Silence is the next stop on our journey to mental clarity.

Are you aware of any sounds?

Find the silence beyond the sounds. Focus on that.

Listen to that.

As you focus on the silence, you’ll access inner Stillness.

Nothingness.

The awareness of Being. That unforgettable feeling of “I am.”

Your awareness will now shift to a sense of inner space. You now feel more like a field of awareness than a physical body.

Step 5: Remember Your Divine Identity

At our very core, our initial identity, we are all the Infinite One Life, beyond all life.

I like to call this Source, or the Unmanifest.

It exists before any manifestation. It is more primary. Even your sense of “I am” is secondary.

Ask yourself this. Who are you at your core?

What are you aware of at this moment? Is it still the field of awareness of the previous step. You can’t be that.

You are not that.

To be aware of that, you need to be more primary than that.

Dis-identify from everything in your awareness. Say “I am not this, I am not this,” as you remove your focus and identification from everything in your awareness.

What lies beyond everything?

Find the One who is aware. The One who has never manifested.

The Unmanifest.

You are that.

The first time you practice this, it might feel difficult or even impossible. As my mentor Bentinho Massaro says, it is like you are learning to use a muscle you have never used before.

Stick with the process. Be patient with yourself.

As you practice you’ll experience the most profound Peace, Joy, and Love. You are reconnecting back to your True, Primary Identity.

Now, Make Sure You’re Wearing Your Apple Watch

It would be a good idea to anchor your sense of presence as early as possible each morning. The five steps above help you do that.

After that, set a presence alarm for every ten or fifteen minutes.

Of course, you don’t have to use an Apple Watch 😉

I do like using mine though, as the alarm can be set to a silent vibration on your arm. And it’s easy to dismiss by hitting repeat option when it alerts me.

When it sounds, take five seconds to reconnect with the feeling of aliveness inside your body. As if your life depended on it!

You’ll need this. Especially if this is all new for you.

Soon you will become more adept at this. It will be amazing the first time the alarm sounds and you are still present.

Summing Up Mental Clarity in One Word

It’s so simple to allow a small kink in your day to steal your joy. It happens to everyone.

Separate yourself from the spiritual wannabes. Learn to iron out small kinks and to take back control over your mental state. Your mental clarity will bring outer perfection.

You now know my 5-step process to reclaim complete mental clarity.

But it will mean nothing to you unless you practice it!

Summarize these 5 quick steps on your phone so that they’re at hand next time you need them.

Commit now to practice them the next time you need mental clarity! All the blog reading in the world won’t help you one iota if you never practice what you learn.

In spirituality as in life, small victories add up to large gains.

And, of all the areas you can invest your focus in, spirituality is where those large gains will matter the most. One word sums it up: